254 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 
this, as far as ever I could inform myfelf, is a great exagger- 
ation. They are exceeding good ‘foldiers when they are 
pleafed with their general, and the cawfe for which they 
fight; otherwife, they are eafily divided, great many private 
interefts being continually kept alive, as itis thought induf 
trioufly, by government itfelf. It is well ftocked with cattle 
of every kind, all very beautiful. The mountains are full 
of iron-mines ; they are not fo fteep and rocky nor fo fre- 
quent, as in other provinces, 1f we except only Lafta, and 
abound in all fort of wild fowl and game. 
Tuer fouth end of the province near Nefas Mufa is cut 
into prodigious gullies apparently by floods, of which we 
_ have no hiftory. It is the great barrier againft the en- 
‘croachments of the Galla; and, by many attempts, they 
have tried to make a fettlement in it, but all in vain. Whole 
tribes of them have been extinguifhed in this their endea- 
vour. 
In many provinces of Abyffinia, favour is the only necef- 
fary to procure the government ; others are given to poorno- 
blemen, that, by fleecing the people, they may grow rich, 
and repair their fortune. But the confequence of Begem- 
der is fo well known to the ftate, as reaching fo near the 
metropolis, and fupplying it fo conftantly with all forts of 
provifions, that none but noblemen of rank, family, and 
character, able to maintain a large number of troops always 
on foot, and in good order, are trufted with its govern- 
ment. 
IMMEDIATELY next to’ this is Amhara, between the two 
rivers Bafhilo and Gefhen. The length of this country - 
3 from 
